Life, 1910-12-08 · page 36 of 44
Life — December 8, 1910 — page 36: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page announces **Life magazine's satirical "auto race" contest**—not a literal vehicle competition, but a competition for advertising space. The joke is transparent: manufacturers compete to buy the most advertising lines in *Life* between October 1, 1910, and April 1, 1911, with a gold trophy as the prize. The humor lies in mocking both the automobile industry's aggressive marketing and consumer enthusiasm for cars. By presenting advertising purchases as a "race," Life ridicules how manufacturers frantically compete for visibility during this early auto boom era. The page displays various American car brands (Locomobile, Packard, Oldsmobile, etc.) ranked by advertising line count, framing commercial competition as athletic spectacle. The electric cars listed (Waverley, Rauch & Lang) indicate the period when electric vehicles still competed with gasoline models. This reflects the early 1910s automotive market's explosive growth and the magazines' dependence on automobile advertising revenue—turned into satirical commentary.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Locomobile, 2100lines - ‘Waverley Electric, 448 lines 448 lines: Rauch & Lang Electric, Packard, 2100 lines Has Moon Motor, 210 lines Speedie, Ne Club Car, 210 lines Brewster, 210 lines ON 899 ‘soucey =—— =. EN ag + cae 7 McFarlan, 1260 lines Oldsmobile, 1260 lines . vy - FN Columbia, 420 lines Cunningham, 420 lines eouty ogzt ‘ont HOW THEY STAND TO DATE Life’s Great Auto Race NOW ON sout] oF ‘919291d 240g cout] oxy ‘eniqowdny One of the greatest features of this contest is the fact that every car is of American make, and is a regular stock model. There is absolutely no entrance fee, and no contestant is under the slight- est expense, except for the infinitesi- mal advertising rate charged—scarce- ly worth mentioning, and far below what it should be, considering the publicity received. 9 A i g Hl Remember that it is never too late to enter. You can start at any mo- ment by consulting Gee. Bee. Are. oxy ‘ve, ddny The trophy, by the way, is a solid gold cup to be presented to the Auto- Mobile manufacturer having the great- est number of advertising lines in LIFE from October 1, 1910, to April 1, 1911. SOUT Fz ‘OOM Fa SOUT 149 ‘S89]2004 comicbooks.com